Ireland - Portmagee boat ride/Puffin Rock (Valencia Island notes)

After Kerry Cliffs - we were "supposed" to go to Valencia Island. It is one of the most westerly parts of Ireland, and, in 1866, (after about 9 years of trying/failing) they succeeded in the first transatlantic communications. They dropped wire across the Atlantic, all the way to Newfoundland, and were able to send telegraphs back and forth. This is mind blowing technological advancement for the 1860s, isn't it? They used that wire to get info from the Europe to the America's until after the 2nd world war - All the way until 1966! I think it technically still works but is not used anymore. So, on Valencia Island there is a museum about this, of course. But we decided to skip that, in favour of trying to see a puffin or two on Puffin Island.

A boat ride was in order! We caught a boat at Portmagee - Named after a boat Captain Magee who was a smuggler way back when and brought all kinds of foreign goodies to Ireland.

There is "Puffin Rock", which is actually called Puffin Island, but the Netflix show has made it so popular that even our boat tour guide was saying Puffin Rock.

Looking at the Kerry Cliffs from the water

The Wild Atlantic was not our friend today. Not only was it not safe to go to Skellig Michael, but it wasn't safe to go to Puffin Rock either, though it is much closer. We encountered wild waters just trying to leave the edge of the bay. Brian gets motion sick on boats, and the sea swells started to take their effect on him.


Out boat captain was probably 15, maaaaybe 18, but definitely looked 12 in every single way. His sister looked 18, but might have been 21? He drove the boat, she told us all the facts, they were so great! 

We couldn't get out to Puffin Rock, and Puffin's seldom come into the bay - but one did and we saw it!! It was the cutest thing ever. He was barely flying above the surface of the waters swells and the terror look in his eyes as he flew frantically was saying "I might not make it out of here", but he was trying for all he was worth. It was a true highlight of the trip. What adorable creatures!

There is a pic in the Kerry Cliffs post where I point out this "scoop" shape. This is it from the water, and a different angle, but it looked like God took a huge ice cream scoop and scooped out the edge.

Boat captain took this one, I don't know what happened to the angle there, but that's hilarious 😁

Driving to our next stop - the fences they build, right up to the tops of mountains are interesting/mystifying - like why?! That's a lot of work to keep people off your land imo. When there is SO MUCH LAND to go around. Strange to me.

Having a lanyard on my phone is the only way I could hang my arm off a cliff face, or over the ocean on a boat and not lose it. Highly recommend.

Dinner in the town of Killarney - NY style pizza is not a "thing" there - we never saw it advertised, and we never had any. Neapolitan style was the thing. As an aside, we saw plenty of Papa John's there. Better ingredients, better pizza - same slogan, though always paired up with a Supermac burger place sharing it's location.

 One that posted out of order - 

The waters look calm, and even in the videos you can't see the up and down of the swells we were experiencing. It was ROUGH!